This one statistic shows how difficult WVU's NCAA Regional will be

The West Virginia Mountaineers got their wish, as the program was named the No. 16 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, bring an NCAA Regional back to Morgantown for the first time since 2019. But unfortunately for manager Steve Sabins and his team, that does come with a bit of a caveat.

The Mountaineers, being the last seed to earn host status, is on the side of the bracket where the average talent level of your opponent goes up, and the Mountaineers will end up hosting what is the top 2-seed in the field in Wake Forest, along with a battle-tested SEC opponent in Kentucky and a dangerous mid-major in Binghamton.

So how difficult is West Virginia's path to a third consecutive Super Regional appearance? Well, according to one statistic, it's among the five toughest regionals in the tournament.

Morgantown Regional set to be one of toughest in nation according to RPI average

When you look at the average RPI ranking of all four teams in each of the 16 regionals, it turns out that the Morgantown Regional hosted by WVU baseball is one of the most difficult in the country. The Mountaineers will host the regional with the fifth-highest average RPI ranking, with the four teams involved averaging out to an RPI ranking of 48.

The toughest regional was assigned to fellow Big 12 member Kansas, where the four teams have an average RPI ranking of 39. The easiest regional will be the one hosted by Auburn, with an aerage RPI ranking of 82 among all four teams.

This just goes to show that while homefield advantage will help the Mountaineers, they have a tough weekend ahead if they want to get back to the Super Regional around. And if they get there, they'll like have to face No. 1 overall seed UCLA, earning them a cross-country trip to Los Angeles.

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